Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care

Mother earth has  4.54 billion years of age. Almost same is the age of most of the natural resources in this earth. The existence of human beings in this earth started about 200000 years ago. It means mankind has 200000 years of history to deliver. The ever and prime story that the he proudly narrate will be the invention of fire. Since then he began to eat meat after cooking. For cooking he used log collected from forests. There we started the consumption of natural resources and it still continues.

The natural resources that the mankind use include coal, water, petroleum and above said log. Out of these coal and petroleum are called fossil fuels. They are formed inside earth after a series of transformation of dead bodies of all living beings. Thousands of years are needed for this. If we look into the past history of countries having rich deposit of fossil fuels , at least one natural calamity like storm  , earthquake or flood aging back to more than thousand years can be spotted. So it is obvious that the coal or petroleum that are dig today is the energy of our grand grand parents ! A humour says that fossil fuels will not be produced in earth in future as humans and animals are rescued from calamities in advance ! So resource shortage will be the challenge that the next generation going to face soon.

The shortage of natural resources will affect not only the producing countries, but all the consumer countries across the globe. The first effect will be on the economy of the country which will lead to many emergency situations. The first shot of financial problems will be toward employment. Youth being dominating in the planet , no doubt, immediate steps is to be initiated by the youth itself.

Regarding my country India the youth population may cross 2 billions by this year. The new generation is crazy towards vehicles. In my state Kerala (otherwise called God’s own country) nowadays there is no house without a single motor vehicle. All these vehicles are using fossil fuels like petrol, diesel. LPG etc. In addition to consumption of natural resources they pollute this earth in many ways. It is estimated that , if current rate of consumption and production pattern continues and population rise, one earth will not be enough to sustain , instead three planets will be required! So the first step to start is from each individual itself. Youth has to rethink on their lifestyles. They have to control the use of natural resources. They have to use it judiciously.

Some may call us alarmists as we talk on the threats rather than the charming future. But it is real. Once upon a time it was believed that food supply will not end or starvation will not be there in this earth. But now most of the African countries are under the curse of starvation. At the same time 1/3^rd of global food production is wasted. During the theme study of World Environment Day 2013 (Think Eat Save) it was observed that 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted all over the world which is more than enough to feed the hungry across the world! So the lifestyle of youth is to be changed.

So for a better quality of life to all the wasteful consumption pattern of people especially the youth below 25 ,who are going to dominate more than 50% of world population should change. They should be tuned towards sustainable development. I remember the great Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi’s words “The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed” . So consume with care as there is one and only one planet earth which at present bears 7 billion dreams to bloom.

Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care